Floods in Rio cause death and chaos
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The World Cup 2014 will be in Brazil.  Read news about the World Cup 2014 in Brazil. |
April 7th, 2010
The past two days, storms in Rio de Janeiro caused floods, landslidings, deaths, (toll is at 100 and counting) and chaos; see reports and photos by the New York Times, Washington Post and the BBC.
The arena Maracazinho was seriously damaged. Maracanã, the stadium which should stage the final match of the World Cup 2014, was also flooded – an international match had to be postponed.
FIFA already learned about the news. FIFA’s concern is, obviously, how the World Cup could be affected by the rain.
The graph below, made by the Official Weather Institution in Brazil, shows the average precipitation levels (blue bars) and temperature (orange line) for the city of Rio de Janeiro.
The graph shows that the rainy season starts with the summer, in December, and lasts through April. However, the graph shows also that even in the drier months of June and July (when the World Cup 2014 should happen), there is still a considerable probability of raining.
But raining would not be a big problem, if the city were prepared to face it. Most of the host cities have a bad draining/sewage system, combined with a bad rubish collection system; as a consequence, the rubish blocks the draining holes, and the water floods the cities.
Besides, several host cities are surrounded by hills and mountains, and many people live near the top, coast and foot of them. This unordered occupation combined with heavy rains result, year after year, in landslidings and deaths.